During the 1940s, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality from abortion. The death toll fell from 1,407 in 1940, to 744 in 1945, to 263 in 1950. Most researches attribute this plunge to the development of blood transfusion techniques and the introduction of antibiotics. Learn more here.
Joyce Chorney, age 25, died Wednesday, November 18, 1953.
An autopsy was performed at Bellevue Hospital. It showed that she had died of an induced abortion.
Fifty-four-year-old Dr. Alfred Joseph was charged with criminal abortion in her death.
Joyce's abortion was typical of pre-legalization abortions in that it was performed by a physician.
During the 1940s, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality from abortion. The death toll fell from 1,407 in 1940, to 744 in 1945, to 263 in 1950. Most researches attribute this plunge to the development of blood transfusion techniques and the introduction of antibiotics. Learn more here.
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion
Source: New York Times, 11-22-53